Pentagon IDs 3 Americans killed in Manbij Attack

Friday, 18 January, 2019 - 13:15

Asharq Al-Awsat

The Pentagon has identified three of the four Americans killed in a suicide bomb attack claimed by ISIS in the northern Syrian town of Manbij this week.

They are Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jonathan R. Farmer, 37, of Boynton Beach, Florida, who was based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky; Navy Chief Cryptologic Technician (Interpretive) Shannon M. Kent, 35, from upstate New York and based at Fort Meade, Maryland; and a civilian, Scott A. Wirtz, from St. Louis, Missouri.

The Pentagon hasn't identified the fourth casualty, a civilian.

The four were killed on Wednesday in an attack which also left three US troops wounded. It was the deadliest assault on US troops in Syria since American forces went into the war-torn country in 2015.

Two US government sources told Reuters on Thursday that the United States views ISIS as likely responsible for the attack. The extremist group has claimed responsibility.

The attack occurred nearly a month after President Donald Trump confounded his own national security team with a surprise decision on Dec. 19 to withdraw all 2,000 US troops from Syria, declaring ISIS had been defeated there.